I've just had a long conversation, via w*ndows live messenger, with a friend that I haven't spoken to for 5 years. And it wasn't as if we'd parted on bad terms or anything like that. We've always been good friends, since I was 7 or 8, I think. The last time we spoke was when we were in college, back in 2003, before medical school. I somehow never realised that he was always there, on my messenger list, just another blip on the radar, another person I'd forgotten about, an anonymous name in my address book. Sigh.
And I must admit, if there's a fault with me, it's that I never take the trouble to keep in touch with very many people at all. Other 'faults' include laziness and arrogance, but that's for another time.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
Indelible Ink
I've just read an article on the Agence France-Presse website regarding the use of indelible ink. Yes, indelible ink.
Ballot workers in Malaysia wil apparently be applying indelible ink onto the index fingers of voters, during the upcoming elections in Malaysia on the 8th of March.
I certainly hope the ink is truly indelible. And I would define indelible as: Anything that's likely to take the ink off will most likely take the finger off as well. In other words, there should be no convenient means of removing the ink, and that voters will have to let cell turnover on their fingers eventually shed the skin cells stained by the ink.
Why do I say this? Well, read this article.
Or just type the words "indelible ink" and "pineapple juice" into any search engine.
Yes, apparently the 'indelible ink' used in Sri Lanka was easily removed with the use of pineapple juice.
Interesting. Most interesting. The acid maybe?
May the Force be with you.
Ballot workers in Malaysia wil apparently be applying indelible ink onto the index fingers of voters, during the upcoming elections in Malaysia on the 8th of March.
I certainly hope the ink is truly indelible. And I would define indelible as: Anything that's likely to take the ink off will most likely take the finger off as well. In other words, there should be no convenient means of removing the ink, and that voters will have to let cell turnover on their fingers eventually shed the skin cells stained by the ink.
Why do I say this? Well, read this article.
Or just type the words "indelible ink" and "pineapple juice" into any search engine.
Yes, apparently the 'indelible ink' used in Sri Lanka was easily removed with the use of pineapple juice.
Interesting. Most interesting. The acid maybe?
May the Force be with you.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Nurses
A 'joke' I heard on the ward:
House Officer 1: How many nurses does it take to change a light bulb?
House Officer 2: Errrr.... One?
HO1: Nah, try again.
HO2: Ten?
HO1: Nah. Give up?
HO2: Yeah yeah, give up.
HO1: 3.
HO2: Huh?
HO1: Yep. One nurse to take the 1st break. One nurse to take the 2nd break. And one more nurse to bleep the House Officer on-call to change the bulb.
My apologies if you don't understand the joke. But then again, you've probably never experienced the frustration of trying to find a nurse when they're taking their breaks, which seem to last nearly forever; or tearing your hair out when a patient was supposed to get his blood transfusion the night before but didn't get it because the nurse-in-charge 'forgot'; or getting bleeped by a nurse and having to phone him/her back, only to have the phone answered by a different nurse who doesn't know what's going on, and when you finally decide to walk to the ward the call came from in the first place, you find out that the nurse who bleeped you needed something really trivial done, like a discharge script that could have waited till the next morning, or even better, bleeped the wrong house officer about a patient not under his/her care that the house officer knows nothing about. And then, when something goes wrong, it's the doctor's fault, not the nurse's, because doctors don't get any breaks until the ward rounds and jobs are done.
And the first person to comment about how badly nurses get it and how much less they're paid will be struck by a light bulb that an overworked house officer didn't screw in tightly enough.
Sigh. But we do need nurses to do all the things doctors don't, or won't, do.
House Officer 1: How many nurses does it take to change a light bulb?
House Officer 2: Errrr.... One?
HO1: Nah, try again.
HO2: Ten?
HO1: Nah. Give up?
HO2: Yeah yeah, give up.
HO1: 3.
HO2: Huh?
HO1: Yep. One nurse to take the 1st break. One nurse to take the 2nd break. And one more nurse to bleep the House Officer on-call to change the bulb.
My apologies if you don't understand the joke. But then again, you've probably never experienced the frustration of trying to find a nurse when they're taking their breaks, which seem to last nearly forever; or tearing your hair out when a patient was supposed to get his blood transfusion the night before but didn't get it because the nurse-in-charge 'forgot'; or getting bleeped by a nurse and having to phone him/her back, only to have the phone answered by a different nurse who doesn't know what's going on, and when you finally decide to walk to the ward the call came from in the first place, you find out that the nurse who bleeped you needed something really trivial done, like a discharge script that could have waited till the next morning, or even better, bleeped the wrong house officer about a patient not under his/her care that the house officer knows nothing about. And then, when something goes wrong, it's the doctor's fault, not the nurse's, because doctors don't get any breaks until the ward rounds and jobs are done.
And the first person to comment about how badly nurses get it and how much less they're paid will be struck by a light bulb that an overworked house officer didn't screw in tightly enough.
Sigh. But we do need nurses to do all the things doctors don't, or won't, do.
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